Monday, December 18, 2006

LaDainian Tomlinson rules: Tomlinson seems to find ways to top himself with each new game, which is ridiculous, given the season that he's having.

The latest came last night in primetime on national TV, when LT (1) smashed the single-season scoring record (186 and counting) AND (2) broke off the longest TD run of his career (85 yards) AND (3) with 199 rushing yards for the game, he took over the NFL rushing lead from fantasy rival Larry Johnson (on the other sidelines, no less). Oh, and (4) he extended his single-season TD record by two to 31 TDs.

With two games still to play and the Chargers battling for full AFC HFA in the playoffs, Tomlinson can set an unbreakable TD record en route to arguably the greatest season any RB has ever had. The TD record will be the NFL's "56."

Meanwhile, the NFC sucks:

*It sucks that the team with HFA nearly lost in an epic way to a conference bottom-feeder.

*It sucks that the team with the best story in the NFL this season lost to a woeful non-playoff loser.

*It sucks that it looks like (at least) one of the NFC's playoff teams will have a .500 record.

*And it sucks that -- somehow, some way -- the Giants are still in the NFC playoff picture despite being worse over the last half-dozen games than any NFC team with more than 2 wins.

Will T.O. be punished for spitting in the face of DeAngelo Hall? Hall isn't exactly a sympathetic figure, but spit-in-face is one of the few remaining taboos in NFL (or sports) culture. More likely, it'll simply be more fodder for everyone who hates Owens.

NBA Brawlin': Speaking of punishment, who wants to guess how many combined games the 10 Knicks and Nuggets will get from the MSG Brawl? It's much more interesting than guessing the number that Carmelo Anthony alone will get. I'm setting an over-under at 50 combined games among the 10 players (...and maybe a coach?)

(Because the real intrigue is whether David Stern will punish Isiah Thomas for what sounded an awful lot like an admission that Mardy Collins' hard foul wasn't just intentional, but ordered by Thomas, who probably never expected it to become so brawlicious.)

More NBA: Gilbert Arenas is awesome. He's more than just my favorite NBA player; he's the new single-game scoring leader in the NBA this season, hanging 60 points on the Lakers last night – in Kobe's house, no less. It was a Wizards/Bullets franchise record, but Agent Zero also set an NBA record for points scored in OT (16). He's currently running 4th among East guards in All-Star voting. Will this make a difference? If nothing else, it should ensure his selection as a reserve. 60! Amazing...

MLB Hot Stove: Who had "two weeks" in the office pool question over when the first concerns about JD Drew's health status would pop up for Boston. And it sounds like his deal isn't completely finalized. I smell a reversal of fortune, literally and figuratively.

College Hoops: Late-entry freshman Bill Walker took his first steps toward being a Top 5 NBA pick in the 2007 draft, making his debut for KansasState and scoring 15 in a 28-point thrashing. If you remember, Walker used up his high school eligibility and gained late admission into K-State; even playing for 2/3 of a season will make him eligible under the NBA's age rule, which I'd assume he will take full advantage of (except that Huggins has the No. 1 high school player coming in next season and K-State could have a rare shot to make the Final Four).

58 comments:

Bah Humbug on NFC "sucktitude" I say. Lets see what the head to head between the two conferences this year. Personally, I think the NFC has more parity than the AFC does. The AFC has a HUGE disparity between the best and worst teams, while the NFC teams still have that "Any Given Sunday" factor to it.

That's right, Isiah Thomas, not even in the brawl, is considered most responsible. What's funny is that Carmelo was leading last night, but more and more people have been voting for Isiah (he had 27% this morning) since.

Watching the highlights of the Wizards/Lakers game last night and can someone tell me if there are uglier uniforms in sports then the ones the wizards had on last night. I have not seen something that bad since the old Vancouve Canuck uniforms.

I posted it in a comment before, and I'll post it again. Tomlinson is going to end the year with 35 TDs, a number that will probably stand for at least a decade, or until the next NFL expansion leads to a 20-game season.

If you're setting the number at 50 games, all suspensions combined, I'll take the over. I've got Carmelo on my fantasy team (and Andre Miller) and this could be UGLY.

And having my favorite team run and coached by Isiah Thomas (and, of course, owned by Dolan) should be considered a crime against humanity. Maybe Stern can just cancel the rest of the Knicks season and spare the ongoing embrassment/misery? Here's to hoping the Jets make the playoffs, so I can at least put off by a little bit the time when the Knicks are the only one of "my teams" playing. I've become a generalist NBA fan this year, but even peripherally, it still hurts.

In any event, screw Isiah. I hope he does get suspended, and frankly, even without the video of him talking to Carmelo, his post-game press conference was just ridiculous.

I said this earlier but the best thing about so many teams currently in contention and only one team in both league having clinched home field it makes it much easier to set your FFL line ups if you are lucky enough to be in your championship game next week.

Is anyone else rooting for Seattle to go 0-2 (against San Diego and a Rattay-led Tampa Bay) and San Francisco go 2-0 (against Arizona and Denver) so that San Fran wins the NFC West? That'd be pretty cool. (Seattle, because they do have the aforementioned positive record against the AFC, lose pretty much every tiebreaker for the Wild Card spot. While they'd beat Green Bay head-to-head, a 3-way tie of Green Bay, Atlanta, and Seattle would put Green Bay in the playoffs)

It'd also continue the streak of Super Bowl Runnerups missing the next playoffs.

Studs:Arenas - 60pts enough saidLT - 199 and 2 tdsBuffalo's D - just dominated the dolphinsPatriots D - was so good the pats average starting position was the Texans 48Westbrook - 2 tdsTitans D and Special teams - Scored 21 of the teams 24 points

Duds:LJ - 80+ yards no Tds in a must winChicago D - almost blew a big gameNY Giants - falling apart in the 4thSaints - losing a game they should of won

I'm still scratching my head as to how and head coach / GM / grand poobah of a professional sports team could ever utter those words.

Listen, I'm not about to say Isiah is a MENSA candidate. But you can't be so stupid as to say something like that and not expect some type of backlash from your fan base.

It was fairly obvious that the Knicks were just waiting for the final horn. That's what NBA teams do when they're down 20+ with a minute to go in a game. Everyone knows it's happening, everyone expects it. And if the other team decides they're going to show you up with a couple alley-oops and reverse dunks, then there's a very simple solution:

Don't fall behind by 20+ at home with a minute to play

The foul was unwarranted, the reaction was just that; a reaction. The rest of the fight was something that could have been avoided completely if Mardy Collins had simply stood still and watched the dunk/lay-up that was coming, or even if he'd tried to take a charge.

Instead, he decided to send a message his way (or maybe Isiah's way?), and caused a lot of headaches.

Can LdT top the season-rushing record? What is it currently set at? I know LdT is at 1600+, I'm guessing he'd have to average at least 200 over the next two games. Not impossible (playing Seattle and Arizona) but at the same time San Diego might want to rest their RB for the playoffs.

For LdT to break the rushing record he would have to be super human the next 2 weeks. He has 1626 yrads and the record is 2105 meaning he would need another 479 years which would mean he would need to average 239.5 ypg. I think that would be hard to do especially if they can wrap up HFA next week. I think it is more realistic to think he could get to the 2K mark.

If there is a way, Marty Schottenheimer will screw it up. Do NOT overlook this.

What was LT doing in the game last night on the final drive? They have Michael Turner (a MORE than adequate back-up (I think he could be a good starter somewhere)) and yet, LT was sent back in the game was with a little more than 2 min. left to help run out the clock in a game that was out of reach. WHY?

Sure enough, he got popped in the chin and ended up coming out early. What if it had been more serious? This is how he got Drew Brees injured in the final game of last season against the Broncos.

If the Chargers don't make it to the Super Bowl, it will be Schottenheimer's fault. I have no doubt. What an idiot.

dan mega... I agree completely; the NFC has way more parity. . On any given sunday, any team can play like the worst team in the league. The AFC actually has good teams; so boring to watch. The NFC is kind of like the NL central, or NBA east - much more exciting trying to pick which team is going to suck worse each game.

As it is, it's kind of wierd that their is such a discrepancy between conferences in each of the major professional sports. I know it's cyclical, but it seems like the law of averages would push the conferences to have a mix of the dominant teams, whereas right now all the dominant teams are in one conference in all three sports. But the funny thing is, come the championship game (or series), all bets are off (although the safest system spread bet this year in football is to pick generic AFC team over NFC team).

Nate Robinson should be suspended for the rest of the season for calling the Mardy Collins play a good clean hard foul. Seriously, and that was after the great moment where he went after Carmelo and had an open shot and then turned and ran away while still trying to look tough. I think he should've been suspended for all of last season for attempting 33 dunks in 1 round of the dunk contest. And don't forget the incident where he tryed to throw the bounce pass dunk to himself in traffic in a semi-tight game and acually missed it. That guy is a complete moron.

I am still wondering why Dan is such a big fan of a selfish player like Gilbert Arenas. He loves throwing snide remarks towards Favre for what he believes is selfishness but he loves to promote Arenas. Makes no sense to me but there is hope, once Noah makes it to the pros we will be reading how great he is and after his first double-double. Dan will be putting him as the greatest power forward of all time over guys like M. Malone, Barkley and the Mailman.

I may be a homer, but 15 games is too much, which equates to almost 1/5th of the season. David Stern may have lost his mind here, i'm guessing guys will appeal and an realistic mediator will knock it down to a more appropriate 7-10 games.

From the AP: "Mardy Collins, whose hard foul on Smith sparked the fighting, was suspended six games and Knicks teammate Jared Jeffries will miss four. Also, the Knicks' Jerome James and Denver's Nene were both penalized one game for leaving the bench area during the chaos."

No suspension for Isiah? Maybe Stern thinks that Isiah not missing any time on the sidelines will help lead to his firing a lot sooner. Wonder if Isiah will ever make it back into the NBA after destroying the Knicks franchise?

Nate Robinson should have got the same suspension as Melo. Without those 2 guys, there wouldn't have been the one punch brawl. I do think some of these suspensions will be knocked down a little after the appeal process.

Doesn't Stern have the exclusive authority over the players' union regarding discipline issues? I thought that was the case with Artest and why his suspension was upheld. The players are disciplined by Stern and they take their appeals to ... um, Stern.

I thought Isiah should have been suspended also. The rest of the suspensions I'm fine with. "Melo Yellow" deserved his for throwing that punch. I read that Isiah said that Karl put his players in danger by leaving them on the floor for too long. What? There's no rule for how long a player can play. It may be considered unsportsman like but if you don't like being shown up or being dunked on, play some defense. What, will teams be "dissing" other teams now if they win by 20+? I'm now rooting for any team that plays the Knicks to win by 30 and keep their foot on the Knick's throat until the final buzzer.

About the Nuggets v. Knicks one rounder... Carmelo should get 25+ games (snitch that!), 20 games for punching someone, and 5 for running like a bitch. Even Nate stepped up and took it like a man. That should be a manlaw: "No Hitting and Running" or don't pull a "Carmelo"

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DanShanoff.com is a sports-blog spin-off of my long-time ESPN.com column, "The Daily Quickie." Anchored by an early-morning post of must-know topics, the blog is updated frequently throughout the day with new posts and user comments.